Dark flame, Red sparkle
by Marcondiuw
Summary: A farewell, and a last effort to protect her new home from the flames of fate. One-shot. SPOILERS in regards to Dart's past and the Black Monster. Rated T for blood.


**A/N: **Hey, there. A little late, but after what I think are 14 years since the first time I played this game, I finally managed to write something for it! Anyway, I tried to make the battle scene clear and not too over the top (key word here being TRIED). Hopefully, no one will get too lost. Here's hoping you enjoy it.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Legend of Dragoon.

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Dark flame, Red sparkle

The snow was calmly falling in the village, melting the instant it touched the black scorched ground. The sky was clear, the stars shining above, surrounding the Moon That Never Sets, its blood red standing in a sharp contrast to its normally pale sight.

Away from the village, in a small cliff, a young woman hugged her son tightly. The small tears that had fallen were quickly whipped. She kissed his forehead before getting up and running towards the village.

"I will protect our home. Stay safe, Dart." With a sad smile she turned, and with the pleas to stay slowly fading behind her, she dashed towards the village.

As she entered, she began to call her husband's name. There was a bright red light coming down in the intersection ahead. The place was quickly overcome with a cold and cruel aura, but it vanished as quickly has it surged. By the time Claire reached the street it had originated, whatever created it was long gone.

Dart's mother closed her eyes and focused. She couldn't feel her husband's presence anywhere. As she breathed deep, she felt a presence not far away, in the center of town. As she opened her eyes and was about to run towards it, she heard a faint cry of a child coming from a nearby building. The black flames enveloped the place.

Claire rushed towards it, and focusing, she could feel a faint breath. Looking around she grabbed a fairly large boulder and threw in the entrance, extinguishing the few flames that blocked the passage. She quickly jumped on the boulder and into the house. Inside, there was a body of a woman being consumed by the black flames. At her side, a small child was barely breathing.

Acting fast, Claire lifted the child and exited the building. Looking around, the martial artist spotted a couple of trees on top of the small cliff behind the house. She built up momentum and jumped on the slight inclined wall, giving two kicks upwards, and managed to land safely on it.

She let out a small relief sigh. "Good thing I kept myself in shape." She gently put the girl under the tree, hiding from the village's view. "_Better safe than sorry… Be safe, dear…_" She gently caressed the small girl's face. "_She seems to be about Dart's age…_" A gentle smile formed on her face.

Looking back at the village, she saw a swirl of dark flames coming from the plaza. Claire hastily jumped down, landing with a perfect tumble, the momentum allowing her to sprint at a fast rate. As she reached the plaza, she caught a glance of what appeared to be a royal knight clashing swords with a monster envelop in black flames.

The creature effortless parried the attack to its left side, quickly slashing horizontally at the man's right arm. His scream was cut short as it used its left arm to strangle the man, the dark flames engulfing him completely.

"Stop! What kind of beast are you?!"

The monster tossed aside the body as if was nothing. It turned its attention towards Claire. The martial artist felt a turmoil of emotions she wasn't sure of what it was. But one of them stood clearly above all: a deep, seethed hate. Enough to freeze her for a split second, which was all the creature needed.

It dashed forward at an incredible speed, readying its fang to pierce the woman's heart. Claire's reflexes responded the challenge, barely sidestepping the attack to her left. Her hand clenched into a fist and automatically punched the humanoid monster in the abdomen. She felt her hand crack, even under her reinforced steel glove. In a split second, she followed with a punch from her left hand a little below what would be the armpit of a human. The strength of the blow threw the monster to the side a few meters, but not before it tried to behead her with its sharp fang.

Claire backstepped once, landing with her left leg and left arm facing her opponent as her right hand clenched reflexive in a fist and her right leg prepare itself to propel her forward; her right stance fighting position. She lightly touched her right cheek, noticing the blood on her fingers.

"_That was sloppy! You took too long to follow up your counter and reposition yourself! You almost lost your head at the opponent's counter! If you were fighting me, I could easily have countered with my right elbow before you even thought about backstepping! At this rate, we'll need to get back to the basics!_" She could hear her father berating her even now.

Mentally cursing herself for the small distraction, her attention quickly went back to her enemy. Clearly, it either had a powerful reinforced hide, or it was wearing some kind of strong armor. Getting used to the oppressing atmosphere, she braced herself as the monster slowly got up. When it was almost standing straight, it dashed forward into another offensive.

Claire arched her back slightly, throwing the weight of her body on the right leg and letting her right arm hang back, barely missing the horizontal slash. She quickly threw her torso forward, extending her left arm, which stopped the predictable counter from the fang and simultaneously throwing a forward punch with all her strength in the face of the monster. She was fairly certain this time it connected to weaker flesh.

At the same time, she delivered a blow with the knee with all her strength. What she didn't expect was that the creature also countered with its right knee at the same time. She resisted the urge to vomit as she perfectly balanced herself on her left leg. Recomposing herself, the martial artist quickly jumped upwards, her right arm pushing the head of the monster downwards, giving her a small boost and allowing her to somersault above the creature.

Her left foot landed on the creature's right shoulder first and she quickly propelled herself forward as her right ankle hit with full force the nape of the creature, sending it forward. She tried her best to land with a tumble, but her left arm hit the ground at a bad angle and she barely was able to avoid breaking something. She hastily got up, blood and vomit staining her coat, but quickly assuming her left stance fighting position. Both of her hands were hurting, with burnt wounds. Still, her right kneecap hurt even more, the protection shattered with the impact

"_What kind of pathetic display was this?! You tried to use your knee on the torso of an opponent using armor, not paying attention for a possible counter?! That is idiotic on a suicidal level! And what kind of outrageous landing was that?! Utterly pitiful and shameful! We'll definitely have to rework your basics!_"

"_Heh… have to agree with this one… What was I thinking…?_ _But I'm sure of one thing now…_"

Once again, the black monster slowly got up, as if the blows with enough strength to crack stones were only pushing it, without really damaging it. The steel protection of her gloves was beginning to crack; sweat was heavily dripping from her face.

"Tell me… If you are human, how can you do this?! How can you murder every man and woman?! How can you raise your sword against children?!" The despair in her voice did not go unnoticed as she imagined what this person would do if it got its hand on her son.

She felt the emotions intensify, and with her battle senses sharpened she finally could discern them. A long buried, almost forgotten grief; a deeply rooted, well hidden sorrow; a powerful and shameful sense of regret; but above all, a scorn so strong and profound that sent shiver and a great sense of fright to her very core, even though it wasn't aimed at her. And that was what Claire couldn't understand. What was scorned? What was hated with so much strength that it could be felt by those around it?

"Why… What makes you loathe this world so much?! Why such ho-" Claire stopped mid-sentence. The creature sent a wave of black flame that engulfed the plaza.

The woman tried her best to block with her crossed arm in front of her face. The heat burned off the sleeves of her coat, showing the metallic gloves and arm protection she was wearing under it. The pain from the blow at her abdomen and right knee intensified as she felt the coat begin to slowly light up in black flames.

Her sharp instinct brought both of her arms up and away just in time to stop the downward slash from the sword with the back of her hands, followed by a quick upward kick with her right leg, her foot locked on the inside of the elbow, stopping the monster's left arm. She quickly threw the weight of her body to the right, the foot pushing the monster's left arm back, but doing little to protect her from the kick of the creature's right leg. Claire swiftly threw the blade downwards to her left side, nimbly bringing her right arm above her face and delivering a strong blow to its head with the elbow, followed by a quick downward punch with her left fist, taking advantage of the fact that the huge adrenaline rush made her numb to the pain.

As soon as the monster's head hit the ground, the martial artist threw all her body's weight on her left knee as it connect with her opponent's head, smashing it between herself and the ground. She backstepped, taking out the rest of her now burning coat before resuming her pose. Underneath it, she was wearing her old purple student vest. She was panting heavily, a sharp pain shooting through the left side of her torso as the adrenaline high diminished slightly.

"_You moron! The way she flew to attack, that was totally predictable! Also, that was a one sided blade. After the hadome, you could easily have disarmed your opponent if you held on the blind side and gave an elbow blow to the head, followed by a kick to the torso while pushing the sword away! What a waste of a good opportunity! Shameful! We need to get back to the basics again!"_

All the joints of her body were hurting. Her breathing was hard, both by the broken ribs and the oppressive hatred. How a human could possess such an insane amount of strength and resilience or how her body was still able to stand despise the heavy wounds it received were both mysteries to her. As before, her opponent once more began to slowly stand, as if all the blows that broke her own bones did nothing.

"_Probably won't be able to hold Dart's hand anymore… I can't barely feel if my fingers are still attached… Probably won't be able to chase after him, too… Heh, the little rascal will have a blast pulling pranks every day and evading me… I… I probably won't be able… to lift him again… with my elbow barely supporting my arm like this… but I guess… he's too old to be lifted now, huh…? He grew quite a lot… His eyes… are just like his father's…_" Without noticing, the tears were falling from her eyes. She let out a deep sigh.

"_But… this broken and worn body can still protect him…_" Her eyes firmly gazed at the human in front of her.

"You… you are a pitiful being, indeed…" Her opponent seemed to stare at her, as if curious to what bought such statement. "I don't even know how it must feel… I realize now… All this sorrow, all this intense hate and scorn, but… this surprisingly lack of enmity…"

The Black Monster readied her sword.

"The hate and scorn that is seeping from you is not aimed at anything outside… It is a self-loathing so extreme that even others can feel, being misinterpreted as a hate for the world around…" For a moment, she was taken aback, and stopped with her sword ready in front of her. "I cannot imagine… why you drive yourself through such painful cruelty that creates a scorn for yourself this intense… There is no way you can keep yourself sane with this much hate…"

Claire vomited bile and blood alike, feeling her strength sharply falling. The falling adrenaline was making all the pain increase, as her body trembled from it.

"I can't do much in this state… but I try my best… to stop you… so that the person you were… does not need to shed… any more tears of blood…"

Slowly, the Black Monster touched her darkened face, looking at the fingers that were now deep crimson. She clenched her fist and let out a deep wail as it dashed faster than before, delivering a swift horizontal slash. As before, Claire dodged throwing her torso backwards, supporting herself on her left leg.

The counter never connected, however. Her opponent, already expecting it, propelled herself upwards, avoiding the attack and countering with a downward slash too fast for Claire to block and sending a dark explosion around that momentarily extinguished the fire that surrounded the Black Monster.

A beautiful woman wearing a dark armor was engraved on Claire's mind. She quickly brought her sword upwards, piercing the woman's torso as she held her neck with her left hand. Claire stared at her eyes as she felt the black flame consuming her.

"_Deep, hollow indigo… Like a perfect glass eye, devoid of any life… I'm sorry…_" She couldn't help but feel pity for such person.

The Black Monster gently put her body down and flew upwards, in a blinding speed. Claire could see the blood dripping from all of her wounds clearly. Not the wounds that forms scars and are reminders of battles, but wounds that rend the spirit and leave gaping, empty spaces on the soul. Spaces that probably would never be able to become whole again. She watched as the woman became a small dot, hearing every piece of her being cursing her fate, wishing to be free. Claire wondered what that woman has done to be rewarded with such fate.

"_Pathetic! Utterly pathetic! You should go back to the basics immediately! I will have to teach you from the beginning! We will began immediately the moment you set foot here, you hear me?!"_

"_Sorry, dad… I guess… I won't make it back, after all… Dart… Live… Live strong…_"

Her body burned in the dark flames, turning to ashes as white as the snow… On the following morning, a young blond found a small crimson gem that sparkled red covered in white.

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PS: In case anyone is wondering, I'm a fan of Rurouni Kenshin. Also, damn title took almost as long as the story itself.


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